What is System Availability Analysis?

Availability is a metric that combines the concepts of reliability and maintainability. Availability gives the probability of a unit being available — not broken and not undergoing repair — when called upon for use. Industries that rely on certain key pieces of equipment have a powerful interest in being able to model and track the availability of these machines. So do the manufacturers of repairable systems, whose customers will have a keen interest in the availability of the products they are buying. System availability estimation is most frequently done through simulation.